Considering closing GM

[Darth Tater]

Lately the General Messages forum has become what some of us consider a haven for spammers and those with nothing pertaining to Tolkien to say. The administration is seriously considering closing this forum, and putting more of our attention on the Tolkien sections, which is what this board is supposed to be about. We don't all agree on what to do yet, so don't panic. What you people think will most likely not affect our decision, but we'd like to hear your opinions anyway, if only to see how extreme the reactions will be.

[Elfmaster XK]

I think closing the GM forum is a bad idea! Okay, there is a lot of spam, but there are genuinely general topics too, like the terrorism one for example. I'm sure this threat will be enough to get ppl back talking about the general things you want them to. What do you suggest be in general messages anyway? And what do you consider spam? Are we talking 'little things that make you happy?' or just things like 'I'm new?' Perhaps outlining spam would be a good idea.

Anyway, you could always give bad spammers a temporary ban.

[aldesign]

to be honest Darth, theres only so much that any one person can say/talk about Tolkien and the Pj Films.

We all love the moot because we came here looking for Tolkien, we found it, chatted about it, and now have somewhere to hang-out, the GM forum.

Were all here for the common interest of Tolkien, which is what makes us special as a bunch of people, but we have to chat about other stuff, which is why we are greatfull for this forum.

andy

[Finrod Felagund]

Hey aldesign I like your avatar
"It'sa me, Mario"

But I think that while many threads may be pointless (fun nothenless) that some (terrorist thread, writers thread, Canadian thread) reall are great and I would be disappointed if the GM forum were closed.

[azalea]

I can see why this is being considered. I have noticed that on a board for discussing Tolkein's works, there are often few new messages on the Tolkein forums, but many on the GM threads, which shows that a lot of people are putting more energy into those discussions than into the Tolkein ones. I have even noticed that there are people who post regularly on the GM threads whose names I've never (or rarely) seen in the Tolkein forums!
On the other hand, I do enjoy some of the threads in GM because it's a way become familiar with the people on the board outside of sharing a love of Tolkein's works. It's nice to discuss issues with people who are also Tolkein fans because we know we share that common ground.
Maybe a compromise would be to set up some guidelines for GM, and close all frivolous threads, keeping ones that seem appropriate to a Tolkein board, although not directly related to Tolkein and his works. I think discussing world and life issues with a view to Tolkein makes sense (although that sentence may not have). But "hi" threads that are still going 2-3 weeks after that person has come (and in some cases gone) I think are what are frustrating Tater (among other things), because people use it as a place to chat, rather than focusing their energies on what the board was originally created for -- discussing Tolkein. I think people need to be sensitive to the fact that this board is someone's "baby" so to speak,and does not want it to lose it's essence, if you follow my meaning.
Or I could be completely wrong.
Oh, and I don't think that the only "necessary" threads in GM have to be the "heavy" ones, either. There is a place for dicussing Things That Make You Happy within the world of Tolkein. Bilbo certainly did!

[afro-elf]

Can you give us a clear definition of spamming and also most of the serious topics on tolkein have been discussed.

there's only so much we can dig outta the works

[Elvet]

I think the general message forum is a nice venue for learning more about the members here.
How about having one Welcome thread and tell people when they register to use it to introduce themselves?

[StrawberryIcecream]

Emplynx uses a thread like that on tooktalk and its a really good way of keeping from spamming.
Maybe you should havea thread for each topic. and just make them all new, say, every two months so they do not get too long.

e.g:

food
current events and circumsatnces (jubilee's/terrorism/elections etc...)
nationality's/country's
happy/sadthings
welcome thread
birthday thread
religion
all things weird and other silly questions

that covers all relevant topics on the Gm board i think.

[Elfmaster XK]

You can't generalise them all too much though, because people will go off at tangents and then there would be nowhere for the talk about that particular topic. I'm thinking mostly of religion. Have you seen the length of the Theism and Anti-thiest threads?

I think leaving the relevent ones and getting rid of all the spam ones would work, if you started a new one for several other topics.

Did that make sense?

[StrawberryIcecream]

but that would really hurt peoples feelings if their thread wasrelevant to them but to say darth tater it was spamming.so it got deleted. that would just be discrimination.

and maybe having them generalised would make less people post in them anywayand go find another board if they were only here for gm anyway.

[Cirdan]

Is the concern the managaement and utilization of resources? I don't want to start comparing the relative value of one thread to another. The general forum is a place were unique people, Tolkien lovers, can "get together" to get to know each other; so, even if they topics are unrelated, the people are in some way.

I came for the Tolkien, but I stayed for the people.

[StrawberryIcecream]

Originally posted by Cirdan


I came for the Tolkien, but I stayed for the people.

I'm just going to crack up now!

question cirdan, no offence but why do you not go on habbo if you want to meet people?

No offence really i was just wondering why you come to a tolkien message board for the people.

[BeardofPants]

Not much I can add onto here.

I think the best thing you can do is submit the guidelines as to what you think constitutes a suitable general thread. Then we as mooters can try and abide by them. Anyone who doesn't gets a temporary ban, simple as that.

As to the "newbie" threads, perhaps just limit it to the one thread, or if it really pisses the admins off, restrict it to PMing.

I'm with Cirdan on this one. I came for Tolkien, but stayed because of the personality of this particular forum.

Besides which, I think you'd probably find that shutting down the GM wouldn't reduce the problem. In fact, spam would probably seep into the Tolkien threads even worse than it currently is.

Some of the GM threads are useful in this sense, in that they keep spamming, et al contained within those threads, instead of erroding other ones.

But, it's your call.

[Cirdan]

Originally posted by StrawberryIcecream




I'm just going to crack up now!

question cirdan, no offence but why do you not go on habbo if you want to meet people?

No offence really i was just wondering why you come to a tolkien message board for the people.

I've been to many boards and left after a very short time due to the proponderance of dimwits available. I have been a Tolkien fan for years and years and.... anyway, this board attracts a better crowd of people, for the most part. I didn't even post on the GM 'til I'd gone through most of the other threads.

I guess I should have said I stayed for the discussions. I'm not looking to "meet" people. If you read my post you'll see that I said I came for the Tolkien. Not offended... a bit annoyed, though.

I'm old and grumpy

[StrawberryIcecream]

sorry oh old and grumpy one.

i understand now.

all in all its going to be the mods desicion

[Comic Book Guy]

I feel all funny now.

Single threads for paticular topics will not stop the spam and idiot newbieisness. A lot of newbies are stupid, and they won't bother to search for threads and follow the rules.

Besides which, I think you'd probably find that shutting down the GM wouldn't reduce the problem. In fact, spam would probably seep into the Tolkien threads even worse than it currently is.

No it won't, we will do the same as we always do, moderate the forums, when spam seeps into the other forums, we will take appropriate action, as we always do.

[StrawberryIcecream]

what exactly do you call a newbie? because i am no idiot.

[Earniel]

IEP! This is to scare me, right? Just another pink and purple day-joke? (ow jeez, look how sceptical I became ) Anyway I'll bite. *CHOMP*

I understand why you consider to close it down but I don't think closing down GM is going to solve the problem. Newbies will be newbies and so they should be. And it isn't just newbies who get tempted to spam. Besides you might lose some of the mooters. Tolkien is (sadly enough) still a limited topic.

I'd hate to lose GM and I think it shows that there's more to us than just Tolkienfans. If it's closed I'll probably come here a lot less often (yeah, yeah you can start celebrating now) but as BoP said: It's your call.

[Comic Book Guy]

what exactly do you call a newbie? because i am no idiot.

I never said you were an idiot. Heh.

Newbies will be newbies and so they should be.

There is no reason why they should try to be newbies.

And it isn't just newbies who get tempted to spam.

And what?

Tolkien is (sadly enough) still a limited topic.

It also happens to be the actual topic of this board.

[afro-elf]

It also happens to be the actual topic of this board

it is NOT the SOLE topic of this board otherwise there would not be a GM section not dealing with tolkien

also your statement does not counter the fact that tolkien is limited

since more seems to be on the GM threads than tolkien then it seems that the entire board would grid down to very sporadic posting

the kinds of post and level of posters insights as declined as time has gone on.

there's only so much to scrap